History of Bengkayang

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The word Bengkayang in Chinese language (La La) means faraway, in the beginning Bengkayang village was a part of Sambas area, Bengkayang was a stopping point for past merchants and goldminers. Bengkayang during the Dutch Colonialism was a part of Afdeling Van Singkawang area, in which Afdeling administration area was distributed into several legal zones as follow:

* Onder Afdeling Singkawang, Bengkayang, Pemangkat, and Sambas (Sambas Sultanate area).
* Kingdom’s area / Penembahan Mempawah.
* Pontianak Kingdom’s area which included Mandor.

By the end of World War II, those areas were distributed into autonomy area of Sambas Regency with Singkawang as the capital. Sambas Regency led 4 ( four ) kawedanan, as follow :

* Kawedanan Singkawang
* Kawedanan Pemangkat
* Kawedanan Sambas
* Kawedanan Bengkayang

History of Bengkayang Regency Founding

With the issuance of Code Number 10 year 1999 on the founding of Daerah Tingkat II Bengkayang, secara resmi mulai tanggal 20 April 1999, Bengkayang Regency was officialy detached from Sambas Regency since 20th of April 1999. Subsequentlyon the 27th of April 1999, Indonesian Minister of State Affair and Regional Autonomy selected the first Regent of Bengkayang which was chaired by Drs. Jacobus Luna. At the time Bengkayang Regency only cover 10 (ten) districts, subsequently with the direct election of Head of Region in 2005, Drs. Jacobus Luna was re-elected and Suryadman Gidot, S.Pd was elected as Regent and Vice Regent of Bengkayang Regency for 2005 – 2010.

The existence of Code Number 12 year 2001 on the founding of Town Government of Singkawang resulted to the expanding of Bengkayang Regency by the detachment of 3 (three) districts to be included in the Town Government of Singkawang that only 7 (seven) were left. In the year 2002, Bengkayang regency added it’s area into 10 districts with the founding of several new districts: Monterado district, Teriak district, Suti Semarang district.

In the beginning of 2004, from the 10 existing districts, Bengkayang Regency expanded the area to 14 districts with the additional 4 new districts: Capkala district, Sungai Betung district, Lumar district, and Siding district, subsequently in year 2005, Sanggau Ledo district was expanded into Tujuh Belas district, and Sungai Raya district was expanded to Sungai raya Kepulauan district, and Samalantan district was expanded to Lembah Bawang district, that overall there are 17 districts.